The Broken Elf King, page 18
Raife stopped beneath a big metal storm drain with another ladder hanging from it and looked down at me. “You think this is it?”
I nodded; I’d been tracking how deep in we’d gone. “One of many, but this is closer to the west wall, which is where I lived. It’s pretty quiet at night since it’s full of neighborhoods.”
Raife heaved me onto the ladder. I clung to it as he then reached up and pushed the steel drain up and over with a grunt.
“Shhh,” I told him.
He paused, and then pushed again. It wasn’t scraping, so I was guessing this was in the grasses by the community garden. I didn’t know where every storm drain was, but I knew generally where we were, and that was the only grassy area near the west wall. When the drain cap was completely off, I climbed up the ladder and peeked my head out a few inches.
I didn’t expect my heart to ache when I looked upon the sleepy street of my old neighborhood, but it did. We were in the gardens, one of my favorite places, and I could see the university off in the distance, and the queen’s palace. Autumn’s cottage was within stone’s throw, and so was my aunt’s. Tears welled in my eyes. I wasn’t prepared for the emotions of it all.
“All clear?” Raife asked below.
I wiped at my eyes and nodded, hoisting myself up out of the drain. I stood and Raife popped up out of the hole in the ground too and stood beside me, looking around wildly with his bow drawn.
“Put that in your cloak,” I told him. “They will assume you are human if you are with me.”
He obliged and tucked it into his waistbelt, under his cloak with the hood pulled up. I watched as his eyes darted around in fascination. Grabbing his hand, I pulled him onto the cobblestone walkway and past the rows of houses. My street was three more over, and we’d have to pass McFee’s Tavern to get there. Technically, it was after curfew, but the guards let us drink at the tavern and go right home if we didn’t get in fights or vandalize property. I wondered if any of my friends from the university were inside right now.
Penelope? Matt? Did they all think I was a slave sold off to some horrible master who whipped me daily? As we approached the tavern, a figure walked up out of one of the alleys.
I recognized his guard’s uniform immediately.
Wasting no time, I pushed Raife into the wall of Mrs. Honeycutt’s house and then pressed my lips to his. He froze, seemingly in shock at my sudden kiss, but then the guard’s voice made its way to us.
“Hey, you’re out after curfew,” he snapped.
Raife’s lips parted then, his tongue stroking mine; his hand came around to grasp my butt. I moaned in surprise, not even caring if this was all for show, and heat flared to life between us. The guard’s voice was closer this time.
“Lovebirds… time to go home or I’ll have to take you in.”
We broke away panting, locking eyes for a moment, and I forgot about the guard or the fact that we were doing a high-stakes rescue mission. It was just Raife and I in this moment.
“Get your lady home.” The guard looked at Raife and Raife nodded, threading his fingers through mine, stroking my palm and then pulling me away from the guard and towards the tavern.
My legs felt weak from that kiss, but I knew Raife had only played along for the guard. “See, top marks in theatre,” I told him.
Raife gave me a side glance, and I was surprised to see hurt there.
“This is my street,” I said before he could speak, and pointed to our lane just beyond the tavern. Music blared from the open windows of the neighborhood pub, and I wondered who was playing tonight. Moxie and the Heartbreakers? The Radical Six?
Raife screwed up his face. “What is that awful music?”
I laughed. “Rock.”
The drums were loud and nothing like they had in Archmere. It probably just sounded like a bunch of noise.
Grasping his hand, I broke into a run down my street and towards the little brown cottage with the bird feeder outside. I hadn’t seen my aunt in over a month. Not since they were yanking me away as a slave.
Autumn promised to bring her news that I was alive and well in Archmere, but I knew she wouldn’t believe it until she saw it. She was very protective over me, much like Raife.
Raife kept scanning the street, left and right, until we reached my door.
The little sign I helped my auntie paint when I was four years old hung above the doorway. “Love grows here,” it read. The pink and purple flowers were chipping off, but the black lettering was still legible. We’d painted it after I moved in with her, after my parents died and she assured me this would always be a home where I felt safe and loved. I bent down and pulled up the pot near the door, grinning when I saw the key was still there.
Slipping the key into the lock, Raife and I stepped inside and I closed the door quickly behind us. The house was dark and quiet, and I knew she would be sleeping at this hour. I didn’t want to scare her by looming over her bed, so I called out loudly into the house, “Auntie!”
We passed the little sitting room and I called out again, “Auntie, it’s me!”
There was a rustling in the back of the house, near her room, and then I heard her, “Lani?”
I broke into a run then, going left at the kitchen and then down the hall to her open door. She was sitting on the edge of her bed with the light turned on. Her blankets were at her waist; she was wearing one of her floral nightgowns. I looked at her with tears in my eyes. I didn’t even give her a chance to speak, I just crashed into her with the biggest hug, pushing her backwards on the bed. Her throaty laughter filled the room and it was the best sound, the sound of my childhood, of happiness and better days.
I pulled back to look at her, and the second she saw me she broke into a huge grin. But what I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.
Half of her face wasn’t moving. She seemed to notice my reaction and touched the slack side of her face. “I had another seizure yesterday, a bad one. The medicine doesn’t work anymore.”
“Raife!” I called, but he was right there, swooping in front of me. He pulled back his hood.
“Hello…” He knelt before her and extended his hand. “I’m Kailani’s husband, the king of the elves.”
My aunt looked like she was in shock, which was understandable. “So it’s true.” She reached out and took his hand. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told him. “The queen hates you.”
Raife gave her a dazzling smile. “Well, the feeling is mutual.”
“Raife is the greatest healer in the realm, Auntie. He’s going to fix you,” I told her.
Raife held a hand over her head and squinted as if he were reading a complicated text. He frowned, and then nodded as if understanding something.
“What is it?” I asked.
Raife looked at my aunt instead of me. “Your seizures are caused by a growth in your brain. As the growth gets bigger, it damages the surrounding tissue.”
My heart felt like it had stopped beating. In all our tests and all of our machines here in Nightfall, we hadn’t figured that out. “A mystery illness” they called it. Seizure disorder of “unknown cause,” they’d said. They drugged her instead of finding the root cause, and now in ten seconds Raife had figured it all out.
“Please tell me you can fix it.” I knelt beside him and took her hand.
Raife gazed at me with a smile, and then at my aunt. “I can. It will take a few sessions at the infirmary in Archmere. The goal is to slowly shrink the mass. If we do it too quickly, it can disturb things and cause another seizure. With the mass gone, you should get full facial movement back immediately.”
I’d been watching my aunt this entire time, stony faced, in shock, but at Raife’s words she burst into tears and then pulled him in for a hug.
“Bless you, child,” she whispered and I smiled.
Watching my auntie call the king of the elves a child brought me great joy. And to my surprise, Raife reached around and returned her hug.
When they pulled back, my aunt looked back at me. “You got married without me?” She picked up my hand and inspected the ring. Raife had given it back to me so that the palace staff didn’t ask questions if I was seen without it.
I glanced at Raife and he nodded. I’d told him that I could lie to anyone in the realm but I wouldn’t lie to my aunt, so she would be the only person we would tell.
“It’s fake. In order for Raife to get what he wanted from his council and to pay off my debt. In five years, we will file for a dissolution,” I told her.
She frowned, looking from Raife to me. “Oh,” was all she said, dropping the ring back down.
“Naturally, no one knows that, so I would appreciate your discretion,” Raife added.
My aunt nodded. “As long as you treat her with respect and kindness, I don’t care what kind of little arrangement you two have going on.”
I squeezed her hand, grateful she was taking this well and knowing one hundred percent that she was lying when she said she didn’t care. She wanted me to marry for love—she’d always told me so—but she was trying to be agreeable. Raife sensed the lie too, because he made the face he always did when he knew someone was lying. Like he smelled something distasteful.
“Shall we get out of the place?” I asked my aunt.
She stood, looking around her room. “How long should I pack for?”
Raife and I shared another look. The war on Nightfall was his thing, and I didn’t want to spill the beans and jeopardize the mission in any way.
Raife cleared his throat. “It would be my honor if you would come live at the palace with Kailani and I for the foreseeable future.”
My heart warmed at the way he’d worded it. My aunt seemed surprised at that, her mouth popping open, and then she looked at me as if needing confirmation.
“Auntie, you can’t come back. You can only pack one bag,” I told her, hoping she understood I would never ask this if it wasn’t important. Life or death.
She swallowed hard, seeming to understand that it would be unsafe to come back, and unsafe meant war.
My aunt nodded. “Doesn’t matter. Stuff doesn’t make a home. Family does.”
My heart pinched at that.
Over the next ten minutes she packed her bag, bringing items that surprised me. All of her silver, which made sense, but not a single piece of clothing, I guessed because she could make more; she was an expert seamstress. She brought her favorite tea mug, a bunch of my baby pictures, and pictures with my mom and her growing up, all of her jewelry, and a bag of her favorite cookies.
“Ready.” She beamed, always in a chipper mood, and I tried not to react to the fact that half of her face wasn’t moving. Raife gave me a sweet smile, letting me know he would heal her and all would be well, and then we moved to the front door. I gave my aunt a quick rundown of the escape route, knowing that lowering her down the ladder and into the tunnel would take the longest time and we’d be the most exposed.
“The guards patrol right in front of the tavern. It’s a bit longer route but we should pass the industrial complex instead,” my aunt offered after I told her we were confronted with a guard on our way here.
Raife looked to me to take the lead and I nodded. It was a good idea. The industrial complex was only busy in the daytime, and rarely had but one guard at night. I used to sneak over there as a teen and shoot at glass bottle targets with friends with our rock launchers we made in school.
“Let’s do it,” I agreed.
Raife held out a hand. “I’ll let you ladies take the lead.”
My aunt gave me a knowing look, a look that said she liked him, and I tried not to blush. Opening the front door, I looked left and right, making sure it was clear. It was. We all stepped out onto the street and I palmed the key in my hand, seeing no use to lock up or put it back. I wanted to keep it as a memento. My aunt started to walk left, away from the tavern and down the back of the road that would lead to the industrial complex, but then I got an idea.
“Be right back,” I told them, and turned. Lifting up on my tiptoes, I grabbed the “love grows here” sign, having to wiggle it back and forth to loosen the nail that held it in place. When I finally got it off, my aunt was waiting behind me with her small suitcase open.
I grinned, placing it on top of all of her beloved possessions, and then we were ready to go.
We made quick work of the longer route, but as we neared the industrial building I noticed the lights were on in one of them. This was where all of the queen’s machines were made and tested and replicated en masse. A lot of the citizens worked machine factory jobs, but they were usually only working during the daylight hours.
There were shadows moving behind the frosted glass windows and we walked faster, hoping to pass before anyone saw us. Just as we neared the closest window with a light on, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air and the hair on my arms stood up.
Raife stopped and I did as well, sharing a look with him.
My aunt chewed her lip, eyeing the window, then the scream came again. It was female, and it was clear she was in pain or being tortured.
“Not sure I can sleep at night if we pass by and don’t try to help.” My aunt was always direct and to the point, which was a big thing I loved about her.
“Same,” I agreed.
Raife sighed, pulling out his small dagger, and handed it to me. “You know how to use one, I assume?” He’d seen me fight the slaver the first day, and although I didn’t relish violence I would use it when needed, without hesitation.
I nodded and he pulled out his bow. Turning to my aunt, he held her gaze. “Meet us at the garden storm drain. If a guard stops you on the way, tell him you’re leaving your husband, that you caught him cheating. Make a big scene and make the guard feel uncomfortable.”
My aunt nodded. “Won’t be too far from the truth.”
I winced; her husband really had cheated on her, but it was he who left for the other woman. Raife looked stricken, but my aunt smiled her crooked smile. “His loss. See you soon. Save that girl, or at least put her out of her misery.”
We nodded, but the thought of killing the girl hadn’t crossed my mind, and now I felt sick.
FOURTEEN
We slipped through the open unguarded gate of the industrial machine park and then approached the building. The windows at street level were frosted with an acid wash on the lower half to give privacy, but the upper half of the window was crystal clear. There were two windows with the lights on, and one of them was cracked open for fresh air. If we could just climb on top of something and peek over the frosted bit, we could get a better view of what the Hades was going on.
The screaming had stopped and that worried me. Did they kill her? Who was she and what had she done to deserve such treatment?
“Here,” Raife whispered, and I peered over to see him lifting a big wooden crate that once held one of the queen’s machines. Scurrying over to help him, I hooked my fingers into the slats and carried it over to the base of the window that was closed so there was less chance we would be seen.
If we held absolutely still, we could hear the voices inside.
“Is she dead?” a man said.
“No, just passed out,” another male said.
Once the large crate was firmly in place, Raife and I both scrambled quietly on top of it and then looked at each other.
It was as if we were waiting for the other to say this was a horrible idea and we shouldn’t look. We should run to the garden and get back to Archmere and forget we ever heard those screams. But then, as if we shared one mind, we both slowly raised ourselves up to peer into the clear part of the window. It took a moment for my mind to process what I was seeing. There was a large machine the size and appearance of a giant fan with a hole in the center. In that hole was a glass box the shape of a coffin. In the box was a girl, limp but breathing slowly. The tips of her ears indicated she was either elf or fae. I couldn’t tell from here but I felt Raife go rigid beside me, which made me wonder if she was an elf. There were four guards, one at each corner of the room; they held various weapons that would overwhelm the small dagger I had brought.
“Will her ears shrink once the treatment is done?” a bald man wearing a white lab coat asked another male with long reddish hair that was tied back into a bun at his nape.
“No. I already told Queen Zaphira I could build her a machine that strips a magical creature of their power so they appear human, but it will not make them one genetically.”
Dizziness washed over me at his words. They just… did they somehow strip that girl of her magic? That was possible? Bile rose in my throat, and Raife ever so quietly pulled out his bow. I reached out and stopped his hand, giving him a pleading look. If he sounded the alarm now, we would never get out of here with my aunt.
I could not only see the rage boiling in Raife’s expression, I could feel it, his and then mine. I was angry too. I wanted to light this entire place on fire and burn it all to the ground, but I also wanted to live to fight another day. The queen was the brains of all of these inventions. So long as she lived they would still be popping up long after we destroyed one scientist or one machine. She had blueprints of all the machines in her safe, and dozens of engineers and scientists. These people were expendable. I hoped to convey that to Raife with a look.
“She’s waking,” the redhead said, and both of our heads snapped back in their direction. The girl whimpered as she looked up at the two men.
“Display your power,” one of them commanded her.
She lay there shaking like a leaf, sweating, and ignored him.
“Display your magic now or I turn the machine back on!” he snapped, and she flinched, holding up her hand. She held her fingers out like claws and stared at them in shock.
What happened next was too much for me to watch. A gut-wrenching wail ripped through the room and her sorrow slammed into me as if I were right in front of her. I fell backwards, scrambling off the box at the realization that she’d lost her magic, what made her who she was.
“Welcome to Nightfall. You are now human.” The man’s voice filtered through the window and reached me just as I threw up on the rocks. Her sobs were soul crushing, filtering out into the night. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be her to find out her magic had been stripped from her. She felt half empty, and my empathic gift was soaking it all up, even from out here. It was too much for me.
